That's a wrap!

The weather has been quite cold lately. There has been some pretty hard frosts and lows of -5C. Lately the highs have not been more than 7C. The reality is that we are headed towards that dreaded winter season. I spent a night up in Northern Ontario and we got 3 inches of snow.

A piece of insulation is placed on top of the inner cover

 The bee cozy wraps fit snug around the hives but they also have a seem on the front of the hive which allows moisture to leave the hive. This is very important. Cold does not kill bees, moisture does. Look at the hive cover. I switched it over after taking the picture. Notice the corners have little stubs them which will allow a tiny gap all around the hive. This will let the warm humid air which comes from consuming honey in the cluster to escape.

Wrapped hives

The bee cozy wraps take literally 20 seconds to install. It is wonderful!

Ventilation holes allow the hive to breath

Left is a custom cover: R5 blue insulation + tar paper wrap

 My smoker was working insanely well tonight. The smoke was pretty strong and thick. I found myself being choked out by the smoke on several occasions.

Smokers always work the best when not needed

This is essentially the end of the beekeeping season. I installed hive entrance reducers/mouse guards but I forgot to take a picture of them. Now I can only hope that my bees have enough honey stores to make it through the winter and that they will not be plagued by disease.